Chilling Last Words From History’s Worst Serial Killers

John Wayne Gacy

“Kiss my ass.” John Wayne Gacy raped and killed at least 33 boys in the 1970s. Terrifyingly, he was dressed as a clown. He was executed on May 10th, 1994.

Jeffrey Dahmer

“I don’t care if I live or die. Go ahead and kill me.” Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer raped and murdered 17 men and boys, dismembering the bodies and even cooking and eating parts of them at his house. He was beaten to death by a fellow inmate in 1994.

Thomas J. Grasso

“I did not get my Spaghetti O’s. I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.” Thomas J. Grasso was killed by lethal injection in 1995 after he murdered two elderly ladies in order to rob them of a small amount of money.

Tom Ketchum

“I’ll be in Hell before you start breakfast, boys. Let her rip.” Tom Ketchum, AKA Black Jack, was rumored to have killed many people. He was was eventually hanged in 1901 for committing a train robbery.

Francis “Two Gun” Crowley

Albert Fish

“I don’t even know why I’m here.” Serial killer Albert Fish was executed in 1936 after he was convicted of kidnapping, murder, and cannibalism. At one time he boasted of killing at least 100 children.

James French

“Hey, fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? ‘French Fries.'” French’s joke referred to his execution by electric chair. He was sentenced to death for killing his cellmate while in prison for killing a motorist who had given him a ride.

Aileen Wuornos

“I’ll be back.” Aileen Wuornos killed seven men in a single year, claiming that all of them had tried to rape her. She was executed by lethal injection in 2002.

Dr. H.H. Holmes

“Take your time. Don’t bungle it.” Dr. H.H. Holmes was one of America’s first serial killers. He lured young women to his apartment building during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and then gassed them and dismembered their bodies. He admitted to 27 murders but may have committed many more, and was executed in 1896.

Ted Bundy

“I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.” Bundy is thought to have kidnapped, raped, and killed hundreds of women, but the true number is unknown. He was executed by electric chair in 1989.

Angel Maturino Resendiz

“I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me…You do not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting.” Resendiz was executed for 15 murders and was given the nickname The Railway Killer because he dumped the victim’s bodies near railroad tracks.

Carl Panzram

“Hurry up, you Hoosier bastard. I could kill ten men while you’re fooling around.” Carl Panzram killed over twenty people and allegedly raped over one thousand men. He was executed by hanging in 1930.

Donald Henry Gaskins

“I’ll let my lawyers talk for me. I’m ready to go.” Gaskins was executed for eight murders but claimed he killed at up to 100 people, most of them hitchhikers.

James Allen Red Dog

“I’m going home, babe.” James Allen Red Dog was linked to at least five murders and was executed in 1993.

Ned Kelly

“Such is life.” Ned Kelly was executed by hanging in 1880, after he killed multiple people, including police officers, during his time as an outlaw and bank robber. He’s now a divisive figure in Australia, where some regard him as a folk hero and latter-day Robin Hood.

Fritz Haarman

“I repent, but I do not fear death.” Haarman was known as the Vampire of Hanover because he would viciously bite his victims’ throats. He was executed in 1925.

Sean Flanagan

“I love you.” Sean Flanagan killed two gay men in Nevada and claimed he had acted for the good of society. He was executed in 1989.

Amelia Dyer

“I have nothing to say.” Dyer was one of the most egregious serial killers in history. She was hanged for murder in 1896 and was thought to have killed as many as 400 children.

Peter Kurten

“Tell me. After my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck? That would be a pleasure to end all pleasures.” Peter Kurten, known as “The Vampire of Dusseldorf,” killed up to 60 people, including children. He was beheaded by guillotine in 1931.

Steven Timothy Judy

“I don’t hold any grudges. This is my doing. Sorry it happened.” Steven Judy was executed by electric chair after killing three children and their mother in 1979.

John George Haigh

In a final letter to his girlfriend, the British serial killer John George Haigh wrote, “You know I have been proud of our association: it has always been an honorable one. I shall remember your great kindness and devotion. Now I must leave you.” Haigh was known as the Acid Bath Killer and was hanged for murdering six women and dissolving their bodies in acid.

Earle Nelson

“I am innocent. I stand innocent before God and man. I forgive those who have wronged me and ask forgiveness of those I have injured. God have mercy!” Nelson was hanged in 1928 for killing 22 women, many of whom had been his landladies.

William Bonin

“I would suggest that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, that before they did that they should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously.” Bonin was executed in 1996 for the murders of 14 men and boys. He was known as the Freeway Killer because he would dump the bodies by California freeways.

Marcel Petiot

“Gentlemen, I have one last piece of advice: Look away. This will not be pretty to see.” Petiot was a French doctor who was convicted of multiple murders after 23 people’s remains were found in his Paris home during World War II. He claimed to have killed around 60 people in total. He was beheaded by guillotine in 1946.

Peter Manuel

“Turn up the radio and I’ll go quietly.” This American-born Scottish murderer is known to have killed nine people in the 1950s, and may have killed up to 18. He was one of the last people to have been hanged in Scotland when he was executed in 1958, as capital punishment was abolished in the UK in 1965.

Carroll Cole

“It’s all right.” Cole killed sixteen people and was believed to have eaten the body parts of some of this victims.

Israel Keyes

“Okay, talk is over, words are placid and weak. Back it with action or it all comes off cheap. Watch close while I work now, feel the electric shock of my touch, open your trembling flower, or your petals I’ll crush.” Those were the final words of Keyes’s suicide note. He killed himself in prison while awaiting trial for murder, after admitting to many violent rapes and killings.

Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck

“I wanna shout it out; I love Martha! What do the public know about love?” – Raymond Fernandez “My story is a love story. But only those tortured by love can know what I mean […] Imprisonment in the Death House has only strengthened my feeling for Raymond.” – Martha Beck. Fernandez and Beck were executed for multiple murders in the 1940s. They were convicted of killing three women they were extorting money from, and may have killed as many as twenty.

Kenneth McDuff

“I am ready to be released. Release me.” McDuff had a death sentence for murder commuted and was released in 1989, upon which he killed at least ten more people and was executed in 1998.